Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet 11, the Flood Narrative
The Epic of Gilgamesh, preserved on a series of twelve clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform writing, is a Mesopotamian epic tale.
• It is one of the oldest literary works of humanity, narrating the adventures of a legendary Mesopotamian king.
• Written in Akkadian, it is known through several fragments dating between 1800 – 1600 BCE.
• It was discovered in Kouyunjik, Mosul (Nineveh) in northern Iraq.
• This object (a facsimile of Tablet 11) is the most famous cuneiform text, and when its contents were first read in 1880, it caused a sensation due to its similarity to the Flood story in the Book of Genesis.
• In his quest for immortality, Gilgamesh meets a character, Uta-Napisti, who recounts the episode of the Flood, in which the gods made rain fall upon the earth for six days and seven nights. Uta-Napisti then gives Gilgamesh the plant of immortality, which is later stolen by a serpent. As a result, humanity is forever deprived of eternal life, but Gilgamesh becomes a great ruler.
• In the early 2000s, the Tablet of Gilgamesh was illegally imported into the United States, but in December 2021, it was returned to Iraq and is now exhibited at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad.